For Father’s Day a copy of the Panini UK Football, 1978 to 1985 book was ordered from Berts Books in Old Town. Much to my wife’s despair, I am not just a football fan, but to be honest a football geek. I am forever ordering old football programmes, pictures, and odd bits of memorabilia. In my Parliamentary office (where my wife insists most of is moved to!) I even have a book on ‘Dugouts’ from around the UK, something I suspect had a very small print run!
Anyway, when the invite came from the Swindon Town Museum group, you can imagine how quickly I confirmed my attendance!
This well attended event last week was to launch their exciting plans for preserving and celebrating Swindon Town’s heritage. The evening was a mix of presentation of plans, works already underway, a brief recap of the club’s highlights and contributions from club legends Jimmy Allan, Phil King, Don Rogers, John Trollope, Keith Morgan, Fraser Digby, and Paul Bodin. The organising committee of Dick Mattick, Keith Coatsworth, Paul Hedges and Vic Morgan did a brilliant job.
During the presentations I learnt that not only were Swindon Town set up by a local vicar (to help distract young men from drinking (little did they realise Arkells would come along and become a major sponsor!) but 12 of the current Premier League clubs were also set up in such a similar fashion! To be fair, most fans can be seen praying at key moments of games! England was a trailblazer in setting up organised football, so clubs were often dispatched abroad for exhibition games. Swindon Town were the torch bearers in both France and Argentina, even beating Argentina themselves – if only Bobby Robson had been able to call upon that spirt in 1986! Prolific striker Harold Fleming has the 4th best goals per games ratio for England, though I wonder if Monday’s Malta game will have changed that? Finally, under the tough taskmaster of Lou Macari, he once berated his players for not being able to match the fitness of John Trollope who had notched up a staggering 879 appearance, but even now retired and a member of the backroom staff was still leading the way!
Looking to the future the group is focused on securing and preserving as much materials as possible then as the County Ground is redeveloped how this can be integrated into the ground – as displays, part of tours, online etc. The club itself through CEO Rob Angus, the Supporters Club and TrustSTFC are all fully committed to this project.
For anyone who would like to see more of what they are doing or would like to become a member to support their work please do visit their excellent website stfcmuseum.org
